Second hand Gateway HDPVR

I just acquired a second hand unit. They told me it was free and clear, the price was right. I was a snap decision, and I now know I probably should have contacted Shaw before I bought it. However when I got it home I plugged it in to see if it was functioning. It appears to working, and actually I could watch quite a few channels. I can only assume it was the previous owners cable package. Anyway I have some questions:

1) How do I go about switching this over to my account, so I can see my subscription?

2) In the network settings It can't seem to connect properly, the error is "failed to connect to dns".

3) is there someway to completely wipe this thing of previous recordings/settings?

Your best bet would be to get in touch with customer service so they can add the serial number to your account and activate the box to show your subscribed channels. They can also walk you through the process of reformatting the drive to remove the previous recordings.